With four teams, including Guizhou China A soccer club, a Sichuan China B club, Xiamen Ludao China B soccer club, and Qingdao soccer club, announcing one after another that they are withdrawing from the new season of the league, another China B team had no choice but to announce its withdrawal yesterday. This time, the reason for withdrawal seems to be even more saddening.
The withdrawal of the first few teams was either due to operational difficulties or the will of the players and coaching team. The Shanxi Longjin Chinese B club, which has just announced its withdrawal, was disbanded in disgrace because of turnover difficulties, with all the money owed going to pay the salaries of the coaching team and players, and no longer able to raise the 600,000 yuan deposit for league participation. Some people question why 600,000 yuan is difficult to raise, but I believe that this may be the last straw that broke the camel's back - from the national football team in the cold, to the overall soccer industry this year's downturn, many originally did not consider soccer as a lifelong career of the players or investors, has begun to look for a new direction. Especially for the low-level league such as the Second League, the existence of many teams is not for the purpose of selecting outstanding players or cultivating talents, and many teams even remain in the stage of "playing for fun". Against this background, it is difficult to say that there is still any interest in facing the strict rules of the leagues at all levels nowadays. Therefore, whether it is $1 million or $600,000, it may just be an excuse to leave the field.
After Shanxi Longjin announced their withdrawal, the media explained the role of the guarantee deposit. The CFA collects the guarantee deposit to urge clubs to operate normally and prevent problems such as quitting the league in the middle of the season. According to the regulations, the deposit will be returned to the clubs in full at the end of the season. The Chinese Super League and the Chinese League A do not charge a security deposit, mainly because the tournament organizers can deduct the expenses during the tournament from the participation fee.
The purpose of collecting the deposit is to urge the club to operate properly and to prevent financial problems that may lead to withdrawal in the middle of the season. The deposit will be returned in full at the end of the season. The main reason why the Chinese Super League and the Chinese League A have not adopted the participation deposit system is that the organizers can deduct the expenses during the tournament from the participation fee. Historically, it is not uncommon for China League B to withdraw halfway through the season due to financial problems, and the introduction of the deposit policy is also intended to prevent further lowering of the participation threshold in China League B.
It is worth mentioning that while both the Chinese Super League and Chinese A League have expanded in the new season, the number of teams in the Chinese B League has decreased - together with this year's participation of the u19 national youth team, there are only 20 teams participating in the Chinese B League in the new season, which is 4 fewer teams than in the previous season. As the bottom league of the professional league, the reduction of teams in the middle B is never a good thing, which is a big problem for the mobility of the league and the cultivation of newcomers. The guarantee may not be the root cause of Shanxi Longjin's withdrawal, but the league's "unhealthy" operation is certainly affecting all participating teams. Problems such as unpaid wages and lawsuits have caused Chinese soccer clubs to focus too much on non-football related matters, making the sport less pure and directly leading to the league's frequent problems. As a soccer leader, the CFA, naturally, can hardly shirk its responsibility. Decades of development, failed to realize the spiral, fragmented management and internal contradictions, so that the "golden age" after the end of the Chinese soccer towards the decline, the dawn of reconstruction seems to need to wait.
